A carrier selection method and a base station are provided and are applied to the field of communications technologies. The carrier selection method includes: obtaining load status information corresponding to a control channel of a first base station on each carrier, where the load status information is used for indicating a load amount of the control channel; selecting, according to the load status information, from multiple carriers corresponding to the first base station, a carrier corresponding to a control channel with a relatively small load amount as an operational carrier for a second base station or a primary cell carrier for a user equipment served by the second base station. Carrier selection is implemented.